Kings XI Punjab has released explosive South Africa batsman David Miller after eight IPL seasons along with Englishman Sam Curran and Australian pacer Andrew Tye. 

Miller went on to become one of the batting mainstays for Kings XI Punjab over the past eight seasons, scoring 1850 runs in 79 games at a strike rate of 138.78. 

While he could not do much in his opening season, Miller made an impact in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, smashing 416 runs and 446 runs respectively at 150 plus strike rate. 

“David has been an iconic player for us. He expressed his desire to move on and we respect his decision. We wish him the very best,” KXIP co-owner told PTI. 

In 2019, Miller played 10 games scoring 213 runs at a strike rate of 130. 

Curran, who at Rs 7.2 crore was KXIP’s most expensive foreign buy at the auction ahead of the 2019 season, too has been released. The left-arm pacer took a hat-trick in last year’s IPL. 

Also released was Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who was bought at last year’s auction for a whopping Rs 8.4 crore. 

Among the retained players is West Indian great and 40-year-old Chris Gayle, who was bought by KXIP at his base price of Rs two core ahead of the 2018 IPL after going unsold twice. 

“There is no way we could have let him go. He is a champion player,” said Wadia. 

The auction will be held on December 19 and Wadia said they would go into it with an open mind. 

Ahead of the IPL players’ transfer window, KXIP had traded Ravichandran Ashwin to Delhi Capitals in return of Rs 1.5 crore and Karnataka spinner Jagadeesha Suchith. 

CSK releases Billings, Willey, Mohit  

Three-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings released England cricketers Sam Billings and David Willey besides three Indian players ahead of next month’s auction. 

The team announced on Twitter the decision to release wicketkeeper-batsman Billings and all-rounder Willey along with former World Cupper Mohit Sharma, Dhruv Shorey and Chaitanya Bishnoi. 

CSK goes into the December 19 auction with an available purse of Rs 14.6 crore. 

Willey had missed the 2019 IPL due to personal reasons as he and his wife were expecting their second child. Since it was not an injury, the team couldn’t get a replacement for the Yorkshire man. 

The 29-year-old had joined the team as a replacement player in 2018 and featured in three matches. 

Billings also had been part of the squad in the past two seasons. He had played ten games in MS Dhoni-led CSK’s title-winning run in 2018 including a match-winning 56 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the M A Chidambaram stadium. 

Shorey played a solitary match in the 2019 season while Bishnoi did not get to play. 

Mohit too was confined to the bench with the emergence of Deepak Chahar as a key bowler for CSK during the run to the final last season. 

The team has retained the core of players which includes skipper Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and Australian all-rounder Shane Watson among others. 

Mumbai Indians retain core team, release 12 players  

Defending champions Mumbai Indians retained its core team including veteran Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga despite his fitness issues, while releasing 12 players. 

While releasing 12, the franchise, which has won record four IPL titles, has retained 18 players which helped it win it’s fourth IPL title earlier this year. 

MI, however, has released Australian fast bowler Jason Behrendorff and Alzarri Joseph of West Indies, New Zealand’s Adam Milne, Beuran Hendricks and Ben Cutting. 

Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who quit all forms of cricket including IPL earlier this year, has also been released by MI. 

Kiwi seamer Trent Boult, West Indian Sherfane Rutherford and Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni are the three trade-ins for the franchise.

“Going into this December’s auctions for the 2020 edition, Mumbai Indians now have the option of filling up slots for 5 domestic and 2 foreign players during the day-long event in Kolkata,” MI said in a statement. 

While MI traded out young leg-spinner Mayank Markande and batsman Siddhesh Lad to Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively, they additionally let go off six international and four Indian players. 

Among those retained are skipper Rohit Sharma, all-rounders Hardik Pandya and his brother Krunal, spinner Rahul Chahar, wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. 

South African wicket-keeper batsman Quinton de Kock and Malinga have also been retained. 

Retained players: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Anmolpreet Singh, Jayant Yadav, Aditya Tare, Anukul Roy, Dhawal Kulkarni (Traded in), Quinton de Kock, Kieron Pollard, Sherfane Rutherford (Traded in), Lasith Malinga, Mitchell McClenaghan, Trent Boult (Traded in). 

Released players: Evin Lewis, Adam Milne, Jason Behrendorff, Beuran Hendricks, Ben Cutting, Yuvraj Singh, Mayank Markande (Traded out), Barinder Sran, Rasikh Salam, Pankaj Jaswal, Siddhesh Lad (Traded out), Alzarri Joseph. 

Following is the list of players released by Indian Premier League teams ahead of next month’s auction for 2020 season: 

Chennai Super Kings: Chaitanya Bishnoi, David Willey, Dhruv Shorey, Mohit Sharma, Sam Billings, Scott Kuggeleijn

Delhi Capitals: Ankush Bains, Bandaru Ayyappa, Chris Morris, Colin Ingram, Colin Munro, Hanuma Vihari, Jalaj Saxena, Manjot Kalra, Nathu Singh

Kings XI Punjab: Agnivesh Ayachi, Andrew Tye, David Miller, Moises Henriques, Prabhsimran Singh, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy

Kolkata Knight Riders: Anrich Nortje, Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Lynn, Joe Denly, KC Cariappa, Matt Kelly, Nikhil Naik, Piyush Chawla, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Mundhe

Mumbai Indians: Adam Milne, Alzarri Joseph, Barinder Sran, Ben Cutting, Beuran Hendricks, Evin Lewis, Jason Behrendorff, Pankaj Jaswal, Rasikh Dar, Yuvraj Singh

Rajasthan Royals: Aryaman Birla, Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, Jaydev Unadkat, Liam Livingstone, Oshane Thomas, Prashant Chopra, Rahul Tripathi, Shubham Ranjane, Stuart Binny, Sudhesan Midhun

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Akshdeep Nath, Colin de Grandhomme, Dale Steyn, Heinrich Klassen, Himmat Singh, Kulwant Khejroliya, Marcus Stoinis, Milind Kumar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prayas Ray Barman, Shimron Hetmyer, Tim Southee

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Deepak Hooda, Martin Guptill, Ricky Bhui, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan